With that said, though, I'd like to take issue with something else Waldman said after all the blubbering: "Parity has come to baseball. It's not the same."

Really? Let's explore that.

In her desire to go easy on the Yanks, she said the following:

"It's not that easy. It's just not that easy. When you look at the eight teams that were in the playoffs, now, with the Yankees gone, none of them were in it last year...

Parity has come to baseball. It's not the same. The game has changed. I know it's easy to say, "Well, if you didn't get to a World Series, your season's a failure."

It's not that easy anymore, folks. The game has changed; the rules have changed. And parity has ...has come here. It's a competitive balance. They've wanted it, they've gotten it, and now you're going to get this kind of thing year after year. You're not gonna have this kind of thing. I'm not sure you're going to see it again."

Waldman is obviously right on in noting that the Yankees were the only team to make the playoffs in both 2006 and 2007. Somehow, though, I hardly think that means that there is parity, particularly in the American League.

Consider the following:

Payroll

The Yankees, Red Sox and Angels ranked first, second and fourth this season in the Major Leagues in payroll, with about $190 million, $143 million and $109 million spent, respectively.

There's no salary cap. No new-fangled contraption forcing teams to dump expensive veterans, as there is in the NFL. There's simply a luxury tax, a slap on the wrist for teams that can typically dwarf the amount they're paying in luxury taxes in merchandising, ticket sales and other benefits that go with being successful.

On the other hand, the Indians ($62 million, ranked 23rd), the Diamondbacks ($52 million, 26th) and the Rockies ($54 million, 25th) made the playoffs with a large number of young players in key roles, including Chris Young of the Diamondbacks, Fausto Carmona of the Indians and Jeff Francis of the Rockies.

Big spending backfiring

That's all well and great, but what enabled those historic runs to the playoffs? At least in part, it's the failure of more expensive teams like the Mets ($115 million, 3rd), the Tigers ($95 million, 9th), the White Sox ($109 million, 5th) and the Dodgers ($108 million, 6th), all of whom have made splashy free agent signings in recent years and appeared in the playoffs at least once since 2005.

The moral of the story? While blowing money on overpriced talent won't save a team, it sure as heck will keep it in contention in many cases. That means Waldman needs to face the facts: Not only is there still not parity in baseball, it isn't even close -- and yes, that's coming from a fan of the tax-and-spend Red Sox, who have the second highest payroll in the league.

The Yankees didn't miss making the American League Championship Series and World Series because "parity has come to baseball." They missed it because they ran into a younger, more capable team, and because some of their best players couldn't produce when it mattered the most.